Reading List
The Best Psychological Thrillers
A young bride walks into a house where the dead first wife’s initials are still on the writing paper. A man in Italy discovers he would rather be his rich friend than be himself. A wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, and the police start looking at her husband. In a psychological thriller the question is not only who did it, but why, and what it does to the people around them. These twelve books, from 1938 to 2021, are the ones that get furthest inside a mind.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 books · Fiction · Crime & Suspense · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
Start with Rebecca if you want the classic, or Gone Girl if you want the book that defined the modern genre. The list below runs from Daphne du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith to the bestsellers of the last fifteen years, with a guide further down to which one suits your taste: unreliable narrators, dark families or pure obsession.
The list at a glance
- 01Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
- 02The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
- 03The Secret History Donna Tartt
- 04We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver
- 05Notes on a Scandal Zoë Heller
- 06Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
- 07Before I Go to Sleep S. J. Watson
- 08Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty
- 09The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins
- 10My Sister, the Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite
- 11The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides
- 12The Push Ashley Audrain
Twelve psychological thrillers
Rebecca
A shy young woman marries the widower Maxim de Winter and moves into his estate, Manderley, where the memory of his first wife, Rebecca, is everywhere, and the housekeeper Mrs Danvers keeps it alive. It opens with one of the most famous first lines in fiction: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
Why read itThe model for almost every book that followed: a narrator who doubts herself, a house full of secrets, and a dead woman who dominates the living.
The Talented Mr Ripley
Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to bring a rich man’s son, Dickie Greenleaf, back to America. Instead he falls in love with Dickie’s life, and is prepared to take it. Highsmith wrote four more novels about Ripley.
Why read itHighsmith makes you hope a killer gets away with it. That discomfort is the point.
The Secret History
A small group of classics students at an exclusive college in Vermont kill one of their friends. The narrator tells you this on the first page; the rest of the book is about how it happened, and what it does to them afterwards.
Why read itA thriller with the murder revealed at the start, which shows that the real suspense is psychological.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Eva writes letters to her absent husband about their son Kevin, who killed several people at his school just before his sixteenth birthday, and asks herself whether she never loved him, and whether that made him who he became. It won the Orange Prize in 2005.
Why read itThe most disturbing book on this list, because it asks a question most parents never dare to ask out loud.
Notes on a Scandal
Barbara, an older teacher at a London school, tells the story of her younger colleague Sheba’s affair with a fifteen-year-old pupil. Slowly it becomes clear that Barbara’s version of events, and of her friendship with Sheba, cannot be trusted. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Why read itOne of the best unreliable narrators in modern fiction: lonely, funny and frightening.
Gone Girl
On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears, and everything points to her husband, Nick. Told in alternating chapters by Nick and by Amy’s diary, the story turns over halfway through.
Why read itThe book that defined the modern psychological thriller and launched a hundred imitations. Read it before someone spoils it.
Before I Go to Sleep
Every morning Christine wakes up with no memory of the past twenty years, beside a man who says he is her husband. Her only link to her own life is a journal, and on its first page she has written: do not trust Ben.
Why read itA thriller about the most basic question of all: who you are if you cannot remember.
Big Little Lies
At a school trivia night in a seaside town in Australia, someone dies. Moriarty goes back six months to show how three mothers got there, through playground politics, a secret about domestic violence and a lie told to protect a child.
Why read itFunny, sharp about the social lives of women, and darker than its surface. It became an award-winning television series.
The Girl on the Train
Rachel takes the same commuter train every day and watches a couple in a house beside the track. When the woman disappears, Rachel, who drinks heavily and cannot remember the night it happened, believes she saw something.
Why read itA narrator who cannot even trust herself, which makes every page uncertain.
My Sister, the Serial Killer
In Lagos, Korede cleans up after her beautiful younger sister Ayoola, who has a habit of killing her boyfriends. Then Ayoola starts dating the doctor Korede is in love with. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize.
Why read itShort, darkly funny and really about loyalty between sisters, and how far it should go.
The Silent Patient
Alicia Berenson, a painter, shoots her husband five times and never speaks again. The psychotherapist Theo Faber becomes determined to get her to talk.
Why read itA fast, twisty read with a famous ending, and a good first thriller for readers who usually read literary fiction.
The Push
Blythe is convinced something is wrong with her daughter, Violet, but nobody believes her, and Blythe knows how her own mother failed her. After a tragedy, the question becomes whether the problem is the child, or the mother.
Why read itFor readers who found We Need to Talk About Kevin unforgettable. It asks the same question in a new way.
Not sure where to start?
If you want the classic
→ Read Rebecca, then The Talented Mr Ripley.
If you want the book everyone talks about
→ Read Gone Girl.
If you prefer literary fiction
→ Read The Secret History or Notes on a Scandal.
If you want something short and dark
→ Read My Sister, the Serial Killer.
Some shop links on this page are affiliate links. bol.com links go straight to the shop.
Frequently asked questions about psychological thrillers
What is a psychological thriller?
A thriller in which the suspense comes mainly from the minds of the characters: their fears, obsessions and lies, and often a narrator you cannot fully trust. The question is not only who did it, but why.
What is the best psychological thriller of all time?
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) is the classic that most of the genre grew out of. For a modern example, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) is the book that defined the genre for a new generation.
What is an unreliable narrator?
A narrator whose version of events cannot be fully trusted, because they lie, forget or misunderstand. Barbara in Notes on a Scandal and Rachel in The Girl on the Train are two of the best examples.
What are good psychological thrillers for book clubs?
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Big Little Lies and My Sister, the Serial Killer all lead to long discussions, because each asks a moral question as well as telling a story.
Are there psychological thrillers about motherhood?
Yes: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and The Push by Ashley Audrain both ask whether a mother can be responsible for who her child becomes.
Footnotes
- Prizes: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Orange Prize 2005; Notes on a Scandal, Booker Prize shortlist 2003; My Sister, the Serial Killer, Booker Prize longlist 2019.
- Highsmith’s Ripley novels: The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water.
From the bookshelf
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
— Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
More books I keep coming back to are on my personal bookshelf, and every month one of them goes out to the Night Owl Bookclub.
Stay Connected.
I update this list as I read. New picks go to my monthly newsletter first.
